Qualitative Study of Reasons for (Non) Participation in Physical Recreation Essay

The objective of this qualitative study is to investigate and compare the responses of single and married women that do not participate in physical recreation. Lack of physical activity from married and single women has been studied less extensively than men’s physical activity. (Vehoef, Love & Rose 2003) The issue of non-participation in physical activity can affect the quality of life and health of women globally. It is important to address this issue and understand why some women do not participate in leisure activities. The qualitative research in this report discusses the major themes or reasons for non-participation from women and compares these themes between married and single women. Firstly this report will give a brief review of some previous research in this field mainly the reasons for not participating in physical activity. Secondly this report will give a short description of the research method used to gather the data for the quantitative research and thirdly it will discuss and describe the major reason for the non-participation in physical recreation of married and single women. Part 1b) Literature Review There has been some research on the topic of non-participation of women in physical recreation. Married women have less time to participate in physical activity due to work are childbearing responsibilities. (Nomaguchi & Bianchi 2004) These days there are a lot more women working full time. Furthermore these women are working longer hours per day. (Nomaguchi & Bianchi 2004) With longer working days women are spending less time doing recreational activity. Women are not motivated to spend their only free time exercising a lot would much prefer to relax and forget about work. Work and study along with other issues like family responsibilities are the main reasons that some married and single women are not involved in physical activity. (Erickson & Gillespie 2000) One of the main reason for non-participation for married women is family and their role in the family. (Nomaguchi & Bianchi 2004) The majority of married women are working full time and caring for children. (Nomaguchi & Bianchi 2004) Having a full time job and being a mother takes up a very large amount of time in ones day. After finishing a long work day and then tending to the needs of children such as transportation and hunger it does not leave very much time for a woman to exercise. A busy schedule like this can be very mentally tiring and motivation to perform physical activity can decrease. Research shows that after all her work and family responsibilities are finished it is usually too late to start to exercise or they are simply too exhausted. This can affect the health and quality of life for a woman. (Nomaguchi & Bianchi 2004) Single women have issues finding time to participate in physical activity. They may not have kids to look after in some cases but work and study issues can limit their time for exercise. Middle aged single women are slightly more active than married women the same age but the overall participation rate is small. (Vehoef, Love & Rose 2003) This small participation rate of married and single women is a concern for society with health issues such as obesity and depression increasing. Part 2) Research Methods The research methods used in this study were In-depth interviews. A number of interview were conducted with married and single women. In-depth interviews are primarily used when the number of subjects is rather small. The advantage of using a in-depth interview in a quantitative study is that it is an unstructured process that allows the interviewer to gain more depth of answers when compared to a questionnaire. The informal structure gives the freedom of the interviewer to change the direction of the interview and engage with the interviewee much more personally, this allows more extensive and detailed data. (Kwek 2011) It is important when conducting a in-depth interview to not lead the interviewee but to probe them for more information. The person conducting the interview must not agree with of disagree with the interviewee this is vital so the interviewee does not feel induced into to answering a question in a certain way. The interviewer must use more open questions to gain more in-depth information from the interviewee and then confirm this in-depth by using closed questions to ensure the data being collected is on track. The open, axial and reflective coding method was used to analyse the data. Open coding is the first coding method used in analysing the in-depth interview data. Open coding helps to make sense of the process and identify the root of the issue. The interviews were evenly split between married and single women. Some of the issues for married women in the open coding stage were things such as; * Age – feeling too old * Body image – being embarrassed by their body * Housework – having to cook and cleaning the house. * Kids – transporting and caring for children * Work – working long hours and irregular hours * No motivation – finding it hard to feel motivated to exercise * No friends to exercise with – not having a partner or group to exercise with * Poor knowledge of physical activities – not knowing the best methods to participate in physical activity * Low energy levels – feeling exhausted * No time – having no spare time to partake in regular physical recreation Some of the issues for single women were; * No time. * Lack of funds – not having the money to be able to pay for and travel to physical activities of their interest * No friends to exercise with – not having a partner or group to exercise with * Low energy levels – feeling exhausted * Poor location of facilities – not having the transport options available to get to recreation facilities * Poor knowledge of physical activities – not knowing the best methods to participate in physical activity * Other social activities – wanting to spend time socialising with friends going to the movies or eating together. For the axial coding stage the data was analysed to find a more whole view of the issues for non-participation of married and single women. Axial coding minimalises the number of statements made by the interviewees and identifies the more common themes. Common themes for married women in the axial coding stage were; * Family and housework * No energy and poor body image * No motivation due to lack of friends to exercise with and poor knowledge * No time due to work Common themes for single women in the axial coding stage were; * Money * No time due to work and study commitments * No motivation due to lack of friends to exercise with and poor knowledge * Relaxation and socialising. At this stage of the coding process some common themes are visible for both married and single women. The majority of married and single women stated that time commitments was a major issues for not exercising. The reasons for the lack of time may vary from the married to the single women. This takes us into the third stage of the coding process, reflective coding. Reflective coding aims to seek any inter-relationship that may exist in the major themes. (Kwek 2011) This stage of the coding process paints an overall picture of the data collected and the major themes. The main themes in this research for married women are; * Lack of time * Family commitment * Lack of motivation Due to family and work commitments married women in this study seem to have insufficient time to participate in physical activity. The main themes in this research for single women are; * Lack of time * Lack of motivation * Lack of funds Like married women most single women in this study believe they do not have enough time to regularly partake in physical activity. A lack of motivation is also a common theme amongst married and single women. Single women in this interview process also claim that a lack of sufficient funding to engage in physical recreation is a big factor in their non-participation. Part 3) Discussion of Findings It is important to note that all the interviewees are non-participant in physical exercise. The reason for this study is to find out why these ladies are not exercising on a regular basis. The main issue that this qualitative research has found is time. Examination of the respondents both the married and single felt that lack of time is the main reason for the not to doing physical activity on a regular basis. There are some similar themes for both married and single women in relation to time constraints. One reason for lack of time that is evident in both groups is work or study commitments. For example, one respondent (Worker) noted that â€Å"I work five days a week and I have three children to look after so there isn’t usually much time left over for myself†. One single woman stated that â€Å"If I had more time I would be much more likely to do something active† (Kylie) It is clear here that both married and single women if they had more time would be more inclined to participate in physical activity. Another common reason for non-participation is lack of motivation. The majority of married and single women in this study feel no motivation to exercise. One similar reason for married and single women to hove low motivation is the lack of company to perform the physical activity with. Jane a married woman claims that she would be â€Å"more inclined to go if someone came with me, it would keep me motivated† Kylie a single woman also states that she would be â€Å"more inclined to do something like that if I had someone to go with†. Sheree feels the same, â€Å"I feel if I work less hours I would feel less exhausted and therefore more motivated to exercise† Working less and having a friend or friends to exercise with are big factors in motivating both married and single women to engage in physical activity on a regular basis. Married women in this study believe that their family commitments are a large contributing factor for them not to participate in physical activity. Most married women in this research both worked and had children. With work and family comes a very busy life in which women are finding it hard to find time to exercise. â€Å"When I had my first child my priorities changed from looking after myself to looking after my family† This from Shazza who now is more interested in looking after the needs of her family than looking after her own health and quality of life. Married women with kids have a hard time to allocate any time to exercise because family is a full time job. What little time they do get they often would rather spend it with their husbands or just relaxing in general â€Å"my weekends are made up of transporting my kids to sport, spending time with my husband and doing work around the house†. (Shazza) Single women in this qualitative study are shown to have issues with money in relation to the funding of physical activities. It is hard to find an activity that is fun and motivating without having to pay something. Even walking will cost a participant in the form of correct shoes. A Large portion of the single women that were interviewed for this study claim that they do not have enough money or cannot justify spending a large amount of money on physical activity. â€Å"Joining a gym is so expensive these days and sometime I can’t justify paying that much†. (Kylie) It is easy to understand that Kat who is aged only eighteen has not enough money to invest in her physical recreation. Eighteen is such a young age where a girl is trying to find her feel and begin a independent life away from school and possible family. Although some of the time constraint and motivational reasons for non-participation are similar between married and single women it is also apparent that other issues such as family and funding can be found for both married and single women but generally in the bulk of cases family was an issue for married woman and funding was an issue for single woman. It is important to understand that the major issues discussed can be related and compound one another. Part 4) Conclusion In summary the research suggests that the major reasons for single and married women involved in this study are time and motivation. The vast majority of all the women interviewed found that motivation and time constraints were the biggest issues stopping them from being involved in physical activity on a regular basis. A number of respondents specifically noted that if they had more spare time they would in fact be involved in exercise of some description. Another stand out problem for married women was family commitments. Looking after a family took up a lot of the interviewees time and drained them of motivation linking the issues together. It is similar for the single women that also had lack of financing as a stumbling block to physical activity. Not having enough money deprives the respondent of motivation to regularly exercise. Although the major issues are very similar for both married and single women it is the finer details that make them different. For more women to begin and continue to partake in regular physical activity there needs to be some change in society. This research shows that women need more time and motivation for this to become a reality. One way to gain more time for future women would be to reduce the hours of a normal working week. Another would be to introduce some government funded recreational activities targeting women in their communities. It is important that more research is done in this field to further understand these major issues and work towards an increase in exercise from all women. Part 5) Reference List Erickson, J. & Gillespie, C. (2000) Reasons women discontinued participation in an exercise and wellness program. The physical educator, 57 (1), 2-7. Retrieved from Google Scholar Kwek, A. (2011). 1002HSL Week 4 Lecture: Qualitative research methods. Retrieved from Griffith University, Department of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel & Sport Management, Learning@Griffith Website. Nomaguchi, K. & Bianchi, S. (2004) Exercise time: Gender differences in the effects of marriage, parenthood, and employment. Journal of marriage and family, 66, 413-430. Retrieved from ABI/Inform Global. Verhoef, M. , Love, E. & Rose, S. (2003) Women’s social rules and their exercise participation. Women & Health, 19 (4), 15-29. Retrieved from ABI/Inform Global.